“It was disgraceful that the Prime Minister ran rough shod over democracy and denied Parliament a vote on sending soldiers to Iraq.

“Former Labour Prime Minister Helen Clark sought Parliament’s approval in October 2001 to send the SAS to Afghanistan. She was not technically required to do so.

“There needs to be sound reason to put Kiwi soldiers in harm’s way and Parliament must vote on those.

“Labour has always carefully weighed up the pros and cons of such grave decisions. We made our own judgement rather than doing what bigger countries wanted us to do. We did it for the right reason, not to kowtow to ‘the club’,” Phil Goff says.